Star Wars Galaxies and the EMU

I have played Star Wars Galaxies for most of the time since this game was released in June 2003.  I recently quit… again, vowing to never give Sony Online another penny of my hard earned money - I know, anyone who knows the history of this game and its tumultuous relationship between its development team and its players has heard that before, but this time I think it is different and this is why, at least for me.

Several years back, after the NGE (New Game Enhancements) took place I heard a rumor of some other "pissed off" fellow SWG players who made some noise about a project called the "SWGEmu" or “Star Wars Galaxies Emulator”, that would restore the game to the state it was before the infamous CU (Combat Upgrade) of May, 2005.  I remember looking into this at the time having heard great things about the project.  I went to the web page and started reading through the forums to glean as much information as I could.  I remember being really excited, but I could not get over how apparently rude the developers were to the very people who were on the forums asking basic questions.  I can understand getting annoyed with people asking the same “dumb” questions over and over and being too lazy to search the forums to find the place where that same question was asked 25 times already and answered it 24 times.  However, this complete contempt for fellow SWG fans really turned me off and I never went back... until this week. 

A good friend of mine always kept himself updated on the project always telling me about the progress being made and on other rumors that he heard about.  Another friend even told me that they were able to actually login and play.  Once again, memories of the forums rang loudly in my mind.  I was waiting for them to release the code for other people to set up servers of their own before I would get excited.  As I am not any kind of expert, on programming, but know enough to be dangerous, I always felt that without intimate knowledge of the base program that it would be difficult for other fans of this game, even those with programming backgrounds to simply step-in and reverse engineer the core game and to actually get it up and running.  I was wrong.

I have, as of tonight I can say that my patience has paid off and I have now been able to experience this for my-self first hand.  I was able to create an account, and after following some simple instructions, login.  I created a character and logged into their hosted server.  And, I have gotta tell you it was a sight for sore eyes.  The first time I tried walking up a hill, the first time the combat queue opened and the icons, with no colors.  It was beautiful and memorable!

After playing around with the settings and turning my graphics up I was able to enjoy the game graphically in a way I was never able to between 2003 and 2005.  With my quad core machine and nVidia 8800 Ultra video card, neither of which existed at the time, I was amazed at how good that game looked.  It took me a few minutes to get used to the movement controls but it didn’t take very long to get the hang of them.  I am really looking forward to playing the SWGEmu and ultimately SWG the way it was meant to be played.  I cant say that I will have a lot of time to dedicate to it but I had such fond memories of this version of the game and now realize how much I missed it.  The best part is that I don't have to give Sony Online a penny.  They got all the money they deserve from me over the last 6 years - and based on the last few days, they won't be getting any more anytime soon.

Just after logging off for the first time, I got an instant message from the friend who helped me get the game set up and his message was short and sweet.  He said, “Who says you can’t go home again.”   I completely agree.

Update on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 1:39PM by Erik

Hi all, I am Erik, (Disa St-Rrou's in SWG) and I wanted to follow with Greg's post in regards to the SWGEmu project. I have been playing this only a few days now but I have to tell you it is just like being back in the game as it was almost 5 years ago. I watched since 2005 and beyond as the NGE (New Game Experience) took over our beloved SWG and cut the heart out of it. Community and the unique style of the sandbox MMO is what made the game what it was, awesome. When the NGE arrived in November of 2005, it scraped all that away. The folks who decided to bring the game back to its former glory and mobilized a massive effort into building the emulation of the pre combat upgrade swg have the heart felt thanks of this gamer. I have played many of the current and past titles of a long list of MMO's and none have what pre-cu swg had to offer. I have had a chance to play the test server that was set up on the SWGEmu site and to create characters. After only a short time playing, I was hooked. I have since leveled up quite a bit in a couple different classes. I have spent many an hour now in the Mos Eisley Cantina, hobnobbing with swg veterans like myself. The most important thing I found was my love and enjoyment for the game again. If you are a star wars fan, I highly recommend checking it out and following the progress as it is a wonderful experience. I looked through the picture gallery that was posted on the site here by Greg also and it brought back many wonderful memories for me. I hope that again we will all have a chance to generate a bunch more memories that can be as equally good as the ones we have already had the pleasure of making. I will wrap up in saying that everyone should get the chance to go home again if they want to, and this homecoming has been super sweet. May the Force be with you all...